Cyprus state gas company DEFA said on Monday it has received four proposals to supply natural gas to the island, an interim solution for power generation before its own reserves come on line.

DEFA did not release details of the bidders, saying it was bound by confidentiality agreements. Based on its initial invitation for proposals, issued in January, it was seeking a supply line for up to 10 years, commencing in January 2016.

The state-controlled company said at the time it wanted a comprehensive solution involving all commercial and infrastructure requirements including sourcing, transportation and processing.

It will sell the gas to the Electricity Authority of Cyprus, the now state-controlled monopoly up for privatisation over the next four years. (Reuters)

By Preston Wilder

Let’s recap, as the Marvel Masterplan enters its post-Avengers phase (a.k.a. ‘Sequels for Everybody’). Thor stands for whiskery adventure fantasies set on far-off worlds (and, occasionally, Earth). Iron Man is smart-aleck comedy which makes a point of being irreverent about everything, even the Marvel Masterplan. Hulk is the underachiever of the bunch, having twice been tried in solo outings and found wanting.

Then there’s Captain America (played by Chris Evans), who’s officially a hit as his first sequel – The Winter Soldier – is unleashed upon the multiplex, yet still seems a bit underwhelming. His superpowers are paltry and dull; he’s very strong, which is why he can jump out of planes without a parachute, and has a shield which he mostly uses to defend himself though he’ll sometimes throw it and catch it again, in the manner of Thor’s hammer – but overall he’s not a very interesting superhero. He’s a well-known straight arrow, and doesn’t crack jokes à la Tony Stark. He doesn’t turn green when you make him angry. He’s a man out of Time, having travelled from the 1940s to the 21st century – but not much is done with that, beyond a funny gag that shows him keeping a list of things he needs to catch up on (they include Thai food, Steve Jobs and “Star Wars/Trek”). Then there’s the whole patriotic thing, which leaves a sour taste for non-Americans.

The Cap is a super-soldier, a world-class fighting machine – designed for WW2, which is when the first Captain America was set. That film was decent but bland, and I wasn’t really aching for a sequel – but The Winter Soldier turns out to be a pleasant surprise, for two reasons. First, it quietly acknowledges that Cap isn’t much of a superhero, and doesn’t really operate as a comic-book movie; it’s closer to Mission: Impossible, big-budget action with realistic visuals and a plot where the Agency (in this case SHIELD) is compromised. Second, it undermines the gung-ho aspects by being topical and explicitly political. This is a film made in the wake of Edward Snowden, the NSA scandal, and a changing climate in general.

“This isn’t freedom. This is fear!” says Captain America when Nick Fury of SHIELD (the ever-belligerent Samuel L. Jackson) explains his preventive strategy to combat terrorism, a system that’ll spot (and stop) a terrorist before he even does anything. The script finesses this later, when it turns out that SHIELD has been infiltrated by the quasi-Nazi HYDRA – but in fact “Zola’s Algorithm”, an evil plan that deals predictive justice by identifying future ‘enemies’ and taking them out pre-emptively, sounds very similar to Fury’s own plan. It’s surely no accident that Cap goes up against his employers as well as the Nazis: “As difficult as it is to accept, Captain America is a fugitive from SHIELD!”.

This is good stuff, at least for those of us with limited interest in gadgets and shoot-outs. There’s a big noisy climax, and it’s well done – the action scenes are coherently edited, and the mass destruction for its own sake isn’t too blatant – but blockbusters are most interesting for how they reflect their times, and it does look like a major libertarian impulse is gathering speed in America (prizing individual freedom above all, whether in the Tea Party movement or social issues like gay marriage) after the relative lockstep of the post-9/11 years. The only slight oddity is that soldiers still command respect – see also the recent Lone Survivor – even as the system they serve is increasingly doubted.

So much for subtext, and trying to view a Marvel sequel through the prism of politics. (Don’t blame me! The film made me do it!) The real news for fans is that Anthony Mackie turns up as ‘the Falcon’, proudly touted as the first African-American superhero, and of course you’ve got Scarlett Johansson – this week’s clear MVP, between this and Her – kicking ass and taking names as ‘Black Widow’, her charisma making up for Evans’ wet-noodle presence. Jackson helps too, engaging in some world-class snarling (“I am not obliged to do anything!”) and there’s even Robert Redford, his iconic presence – and well-known political activism – putting a seal of approval on the film’s ambitions.

The Winter Soldier has some of the usual problems. It’s frankly overlong at 136 minutes. The climax is thrilling but still seems implausible, given that Cap’s mission is to change the servers on three heli-carriers (a mission best accomplished stealthily, not by advertising his presence and getting in a full-on showdown with the baddies). But why quibble, when the film is so solid? On this evidence, Captain America is the Marvel franchise that goes off in bold, unexpected directions to disguise the fact that its hero is so boring. Could be worse.

DIRECTED BY Anthony and Joe Russo

STARRING Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Redford, Samuel L. Jackson

US 2014                    136 mins

By Alexia Evripidou

THE Holy Light, an Orthodox Easter tradition also referred to as the ‘Holy Fire’, is to be collected from Jerusalem this week by Archimandrite Jerome of the Church of Cyprus and made available to all the faithful during mass for Easter celebration on Saturday night.

The ‘Holy Light’ comes from the ‘blue fire’ that is said to emanate from within the burial site of Jesus in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The Orthodox Patriarch then lights his candle from the ‘blue fire’ and passes it on to the congregation present at the annual ceremony.

The light will be flown into Larnaca airport on a special flight from Jerusalem on Saturday, where it will be met with an official reception at 6.30pm. It will then continue its journey to the Archbishopric in Nicosia, where it will be made available to the faithful at 8pm.

“Bishop Chrysostomos [of Kition] and I will fly to Jerusalem on Good Friday to bring the Holy Light for everyone to come and collect on Easter Saturday. Priests, clergy and the general public, Orthodox and non Orthodox, can all turn up,” Archimandrite Jerome told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.

Bishop Chrysostomos will then take the light to the Archbishopric in Nicosia where it will be handed over to Archbishop Chrysostomos who will make it available to everyone during Saturday night’s service. People can keep their candles alight for 40 days after Easter, if they wish.

The Holy Light’s ceremony in Jerusalem consists of three stages: the procession, the Patriarch’s entrance into the Holy Tomb and the Patriarch’s prayer in order for the Holy Light to appear. It is thought that the Holy Fire’s’ purpose is to “light the whole of mankind for a better tomorrow.”

Saturday will see thousands of pilgrims gathering in Jerusalem to participate in or witness the annual event.

Cyprus is one of several countries following this religious tradition, together with Armenia, Georgia, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Russia, Montenegro, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, all of which fly the Holy Light to their country on special flights.

By Firas Makdesi

Syrian soldiers backed by Hezbollah fighters recaptured the town of Maaloula, north of Damascus, on Monday, military sources and state television said, further squeezing rebels’ supply routes through the Qalamoun mountains into Lebanon.

Islamist fighters, some from the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, had taken over part of the ancient Christian town in December and held several nuns captive until releasing them in March in a prisoner exchange deal.

Government forces have recaptured several rebel-held areas and border towns in recent months, closing off supply routes from Lebanon and securing the main highway leading north from Damascus towards central Syria, Homs and the Mediterranean.

“They are inside Maaloula now. It is under their complete control, including the monastery of Mar Thecla,” a military source in contact with government fighters on the ground said.

At another ancient Christian site, Mar Sarkis – a Greek Orthodox monastery, on a hilltop above Maaloula, which dates back to the fourth century – a Reuters witness saw crosses and pictures of saints smashed and covered with dust on the floor.

“God willing, the army will be able to free all of the Qalamoun area within days,” a Syrian army officer in Maaloula told Reuters. “Most of the terrorists have been killed and others fled to nearby villages.

“We can say that 80 percent of Qalamoun is under the control of the Syrian army.”

Syrian state television aired pictures of bodies it said were Nusra fighters killed during the offensive.

Maaloula, 5 km from the main road linking Damascus to Homs, has changed hands at least four times in attacks and counter-assaults by rebels and government forces.

Control of the road would help secure President Bashar al-Assad’s grip over central Syria, and would also enable safe passage for hundreds of tonnes of chemical agents which are due to be shipped out of the country this year to be destroyed.

Assad, who appeared on the verge of defeat last year, said on Sunday that the conflict was at a “turning point” in his favour.

In the last few weeks, his forces have recaptured strategic towns along the Lebanese border including Yabroud and Rankous near Maaloula.

Maaloula’s churches and monasteries attracted both Christian and Muslim pilgrims before the conflict. Some of its inhabitants still speak Aramaic, the language of Christ, and the monastery of Mar Thecla has a reputation among believers for miraculous cures.

Syria’s Christian community, about 10 percent of the population, is wary of the rising power of Islamist groups within the rebel movement.

Only a small percentage of Christians have taken up arms in the civil war that broadly pits minorities, in particular Assad’s Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam, against the Sunni Muslim majority.

By Julia Payne

Libyan prosecutors opened the trial of deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi’s sons and more than two dozen of his ex-officials on Monday in a major test for the North African state’s transition to a democracy.

Gaddafi’s sons Saadi Gaddafi and Saif al-Islam did not appear in the courtroom at Tripoli’s Al-Hadba prison, but the deposed ruler’s ex-spy chief Abdullah al-Senussi was among the former senior officials sitting in blue jumpsuits behind a fenced-off section.

The men face charges ranging from corruption to war crimes related to the deaths during the 2011 uprising, which expanded into a civil war that eventually ousted Gaddafi. The former Libyan leader was later killed after being captured by rebels.

Addressing the four judges, many of the defendants complained they had not been given access to lawyers or only saw them at court appearances.

“I want to be treated like other prisoners. I want visiting rights. I don’t have a lawyer,” Senussi said.

Prosecutors said Senussi had been allowed to see relatives, but denied lawyers had been prevented from visiting their clients at the prison.

Post-Gaddafi Libya has so far been defined by a weak interim government and growing unrest as former revolutionary fighters refuse to give up their weapons, and armed protesters blockade the country’s crucial oil exports.

The trial began a day after interim prime minister Abdullah al-Thinni announced his resignation after an attack on his family and following the ousting of the previous prime minister barely a month ago.

The International Criminal Court and other human rights organisations are concerned over the fairness of Libya’s justice system although the government won the right last year to try Gaddafi’s former spy chief domestically instead of at the ICC.

Senussi was joined in the court by Gaddafi’s former prime minister Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, and former foreign minister Abdul Ati al-Obeidi. Also in the court was ex-intelligence chief Buzeid Dorda, who had appeared at earlier trial proceedings.

But the chief investigator in the case, Sidiq al-Sour, said Saadi would not appear in court on Monday because investigations were still ongoing.

Saif al-Islam, long viewed as Gaddafi’s heir and still held by a group of former rebels in western Libya, had been expected to appear by video-link inside the courtroom.

After Monday’s opening session, the trial will not resume until April 27 as investigators need more time to finish their cases with some of the defendants.

LEGAL CONCERNS

Libya’s nascent democracy has struggled to establish basic institutions and the rule of law as Gaddafi left behind a shell of a government after absorbing all the power into his own hands during his four-decade rule.

“If they don’t get fair trials then it casts doubt over whether the new Libya is not about selective justice,” Hanan Salah, Libya researcher in the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch said before the trial.

“So far, there have been problems with legal representation. Many of those on trial did not have a lawyer from the beginning – a cornerstone of a fair trial.”

Saadi Gaddafi, known as a playboy with a brief career in professional soccer, was extradited to Libya from Niger in early March. He had been expected to appear in court for the first time to hear charges.

Gaddafi’s more prominent son, Saif al-Islam, is being held by the powerful western Zintan militia group, who have refused to hand him over to the central government, saying they believe it cannot provide a secure trial.

But Libya’s justice minister insisted that the trial was open to the public who would ensure the process was fair and not turn into a “Mickey Mouse” show trial.

“I will not allow any crazy stuff, I will make sure it meets international standards … that is why we are having open trials,” Salah al-Merghani, the justice minister told Reuters.

“We heard there were complaints from the lawyers … The court will see if the complaints are genuine or not.”

By Thomas Grove and Richard Balmforth

Pro-Russian separatists on Monday ignored an ultimatum to leave occupied government buildings in eastern Ukraine while another group of rebels attacked a police headquarters as a threatened military offensive by government forces failed to materialise.

Rebels in the town of Slaviansk, which was expected on Monday to be the focus of a broad government “anti-terrorist” operation involving the army, issued a bold call for Russian President Vladimir Putin to help them.

Ukraine’s interim president Oleksander Turchinov said on Monday the offensive would still go ahead. But in a sign of discord behind the scenes in Kiev, he sacked the state security chief in charge of the operation.

Turchinov also took a risky step to try to undercut rebels’ demands by holding out the prospect of a referendum on the future shape of the Ukrainian state. He suggested a nationwide referendum could be held at the same time as a presidential election on May 25.

Pro-Russian secessionists want referendums to be held, but only in their regions in the east, which Kiev says is illegal.

The uprising by armed men in uniform who have seized buildings in towns across eastern Ukraine began eight days ago and has accelerated in the past 48 hours, with separatists seizing ever more buildings on behalf of a self-proclaimed independent “People’s Republic of Donetsk”.

Kiev says the separatists are organised by Moscow and include Russian troops in their midst, openly seeking to repeat the seizure of the Crimea region, which Moscow occupied and annexed last month.

Russia says the armed men are all locals acting on their own but it retains the right to intervene to protect them. NATO says Russia has tens of thousands of troops massed on the frontier.

The European Union threatened Russia with more sanctions. Britain said Moscow was clearly behind Ukraine’s instability, although other EU states said diplomacy should be given more time.

As the 9 a.m. (0600 GMT) deadline issued by authorities in Kiev expired, a Reuters reporter in the flashpoint city of Slaviansk, where armed men had seized two government buildings, saw nothing to show the rebels were obeying the ultimatum.

One of the rebel leaders, in an appeal issued through journalists, asked Putin to “help us as much as you can”.

The Kremlin said the Russian president was listening.

“Unfortunately, there’s a great many such appeals coming from the Eastern Ukrainian regions addressed directly to Putin to intervene in this or that form,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “The president is watching the developments in Eastern Ukraine with great concern.”

Also in Slaviansk, about 150 km from the Russian border, a small airfield which was occupied by Ukrainian air force planes on Sunday was empty on Monday and pro-separatist forces said they were now in control of it.

In the town of Horlivka, meanwhile, about 100 pro-Russian separatists attacked the police headquarters. Video footage on Ukrainian television showed an ambulance treating people apparently injured in the attack.

In all, separatists have seized government buildings and security facilities in 10 cities, adding to a growing sense that Ukraine’s industrial heartland is slipping out of its grip.

Angered by the death of a state security officer and the wounding of two comrades near Slaviansk, Turchinov warned rebels that an anti-terrorist operation involving the army would begin unless they laid down their arms.

“CRIMINAL ORDER”

Russia’s foreign ministry called the planned military operation a “criminal order” and said the West should bring its allies in Ukraine’s government under control.

Outside the Slaviansk city council offices stood a group of about 12 armed men in matching camouflage fatigues with black masks, one of whom was holding a Russian flag.

They said they were Cossacks – paramilitary fighters descended from Tsarist-era border patrolmen – but did not say where from. One told Reuters: “The borders between Ukraine, Russia and Belarus are artificial and we are here to take them away.”

The new element in the operation announced by Turchinov is the inclusion of the army which until now had not been involved in more than four months of turmoil and is untested in dealing with internal disorder. The plan implies a lack of confidence in the 30,000-strong interior ministry troops, partly discredited by identification with ousted president Viktor Yanukovich.

The defence ministry on Monday remained silent and would not comment on the army’s role.

REFERENDUM

Turchinov said the Kiev leadership was “not against” a nationwide referendum being held on the type of state Ukraine should be, adding he was sure it would confirm the wish of the majority for a united, independent country.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Ukraine’s Russian-speaking eastern regions should be involved in drafting a constitution that should be put to a referendum.

Lavrov said it was not in Russia’s interests for Ukraine to break up but Moscow wanted all citizens of the country to be given equal treatment by Kiev. He denied Ukrainian and US allegations that Russia had undercover agents fomenting the unrest in eastern Ukraine.

The crisis in Ukraine has brought relations between Russia and the West to their worst since the end of the Cold War in 1991, and also risks unleashing a “gas war” which could disrupt energy supplies across Europe.

Ukraine said on Saturday it would stop paying for Russian gas because the price was too high.

Kiev is also talking with Slovakia - the main route for gas from Russia through Ukraine to Europe - about reversing pipes so that Ukraine can buy gas from the EU if Russia cuts it off.

Russian stocks and the rouble fell sharply on Monday, reflecting fears of further Russian military intervention in Ukraine and more western sanctions against Moscow.

Moscow has largely brushed off sanctions so far, which the United States and Europe have explicitly designed to target only a limited number of officials and avert wider economic harm.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said it was now time to consider broader sanctions. The destabilisation of eastern Ukraine was clearly being instigated by Russia, he added: “I don’t think denials of Russian involvement have a shred of credibility.”

He said some of the separatist gunmen were well armed and appeared to be well-trained, just like those who appeared in Crimea and later turned out to be Russian troops.

German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel warned of an escalation of the crisis in Ukraine, saying “Russia was clearly prepared to allow tanks to roll across European borders”.

Nevertheless, other European officials said it was too early to impose new sanctions for now. Several said the deadline for Russia to de-escalate would be Thursday, when Russian and Western officials are set to discuss Ukraine in Geneva.

In Slaviansk as Monday’s 9 a.m. ultimatum expired, a Russian flag still flew over police headquarters, one of two buildings taken over by the separatists in the town. Masked men continued to man barricades of sandbags in front of it.

Even as the deadline passed, a truck appeared bringing more tyres to heap on top of the barricades to reinforce them.

A judge set bail at $6 million on Monday for a Utah woman suspected of killing six infants after giving birth to them, then stuffing their bodies into cardboard boxes which were found at a house where she used to live.

Police said Megan Huntsman, 39, admitted under questioning that she strangled or suffocated the babies immediately after their births.

Bail was set at a court hearing a day after Huntsman was arrested and booked into the Utah County jail on six counts of murdering the babies born over roughly a 10-year period. The remains of a seventh infant were also found, but authorities believe that baby was stillborn.

At a hearing in Provo, Utah, District Judge Steven Hansen on Monday set bail at $1 million for each count of murder, said court spokeswoman Nancy Volmer. Huntsman was in jail for the bail hearing, as is routine, and appeared via videoconference, Volmer said.

Huntsman has not been formally charged, and Volmer said she did not know if the woman has retained an attorney. An arraignment date will be set for Huntsman after she is formally charged, Volmer said.

Police say Huntsman is the only person of interest in the case and was cooperative.

She was arrested after her estranged husband, Darren Brad West, discovered the remains of one infant while cleaning the garage. West is not believed to have played a role in the killings, and investigators plan to conduct DNA tests to determine the paternity of the infants, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Police found the remains of the six other newborns, all wrapped in a towel or shirt and placed in plastic bags in separate cardboard boxes at the home where Huntsman lived until 2011 in Pleasant Grove, about 35 miles (56 km) south of Salt Lake City, said Pleasant Grove Police Captain Michael Roberts.

Police believe the seven babies were born to Huntsman from about 1996 to 2006. In 1996, West was sentenced on state and federal drug convictions, and he is now residing in a Salt Lake County half-way house, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Aaron Hawker, 73, a neighbor of the house where the bodies were discovered, said in a phone interview Huntsman babysat his grandchildren about 10 years ago and was “shy, very nice always.” He said he never noticed her looking pregnant.

Hawker said he “had a lot of respect” for West, who described as “a really good guy.

“We’ve been in a state of shock since yesterday,” Hawker said. “Finding out about all these children. Short of the shock value, we’ve never seen anything weird or strange or out of sorts with that family.

He said he spoke with West, who “was in tears and saying he does not know how this could happen.”

THE maintenance and restoration of the Othello Tower in the occupied town of Famagusta will start within the next few days, Takis Hadjidemetriou, the Greek Cypriot Chairman of the Joint Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage said.

The project, he explained, is one of the biggest the committee  has undertaken, adding that it is funded from savings made from previous funding provided by the European Commission,

The company TESLA has ratified the tender for the restoration and as Hadjidemetriou has added, Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot members of Technical Committee agreed to be on site when work begins. This, he explained, could happen any day now.

Othello Tower is part of the walls of the old town of Famagusta. It lies on top of one of the gates into the walled Venetian city.

By Elias Hazou

A PARLIAMENTARY inquiry into the financial meltdown of March 2013 will likely name some but not all the names which the House ethics committee has come across during its investigations.

The committee is set to put the finishing touches to the final report and to the conclusions when it next meets on Wednesday. Lawmakers plan to debate the finalised document at an extraordinary session of the plenum on May 6, after the Easter break.

During a six-hour discussion of the report on Monday, MPs could not reach a consensus on whether to include in the report a list of some 6,000 people who transferred money abroad in the weeks and days prior to the Eurogroup meetings of March 2013.

Opposition AKEL want these names to feature in order to finger the persons who may have had inside information on the subsequent haircut on deposits. The party, moreover, warned that should the committee back away from this, AKEL would later reveal the names anyway.

But ethics committee chairman Demetris Syllouris (DISY) questioned the wisdom and value of releasing all the names; he argued that a lot of the names would by sheer coincidence match those of other people who did not wire money overseas or who had nothing to do with dodgy dealings.

The committee has a list in electronic format, and is to decide on Wednesday whether to put the list in writing in its final report. The full list will be regardless forwarded to authorities, who are conducting a separate criminal investigation into the economic collapse.

At any rate, the report will probably list the names of people – public officials, politicians, bankers, lawyers, businessmen – who are mentioned in other contexts, such as obtaining loans on favourable terms or having their loans written off.

It’s understood these names will not be redacted, and also that the final report in its entirety will be made public.

After himself raising expectations by declaring that the parliamentary inquiry would “spare no one and nothing,” Syllouris has had to dial down the rhetoric but has promised full transparency.

Among other things, the report focuses on: the fire-sale of the Greek operations of Cypriot banks in the wake of the Eurogroup’s bailout/bail-in decision; the sudden spike in Emergency Liquidity Assistance in the order of billions of euros within the space of 40 days after the state underwrote €1.8bn to float Laiki Bank in May 2012; banks’ bookkeeping and the possible inflating of assets; and potential conflicts of interest concerning law firms which banked with the same financial institution as clients who owed the bank money.

By Constantinos Psillides

LIMASSOL police is clamping down on uncontrolled Easter bonfires by establishing a special task force to curb the phenomenon and cut down on burn-related injuries, said spokesman Ioannis Soteriades.

He told the Cyprus Mail that the task force consists of ten police officers clad in blue overalls. “Their job is to visit bonfire sites in Limassol and monitor the situation. If need be they can tear bonfires down or relocate them,” said Soteriadis, adding that the police officers would also keep an eye out for any suspicious behaviour, such as youngsters firing off fire crackers or dealing in drugs.”

The spokesman said that Limassol has a lot of problematic areas, mainly around the areas of Zakaki, Agios Athanasios and Agios Nicolaos. “We have problems there every year. We are now trying to minimise it by assigning a special task force whose only job for the next week is to exclusively deal with those bonfires,” he said.

The officers will be checking whether the bonfire is likely to damage nearby buildings or overhead cables and whether it’s too high or not.

Other districts are expected to proceed with their own task forces or increase patrols specifically to keep bonfires in check.

The Easter bonfires, or lambradjies as they are locally known, are a major headache for the police. The bonfires are lit typically around churches or empty fields following the Holy Saturday midnight mass, to burn effigies of Judas.

The custom has gone completely out of control in recent years, with neighbourhoods and even villages competing with each other for the largest bonfire. Rivals have been known to sabotage each other, by lighting the bonfire before the Holy Saturday service.

It has also become customary to throw fire crackers in the bonfire, as well as gas bottles or in some extreme cases pipe bombs, deeming them extremely dangerous for bystanders. The bonfires, especially those lit near church grounds, are observed by a number of churchgoers who flood the churches for the most important service in orthodox tradition.

The Green party is the only one that protests the custom regularly and has repeatedly asked for its abolition. The party said in an announcement that people cut down trees illegally and steal timber for bonfires, and appealed to police and local authorities “to remain vigilant and to increase their patrols”.

By George Psyllides

THE British bases (SBA) said on Tuesday that a large amount of a substance believed to be cocaine was seized during a raid on an illegal casino in Trachoni village on Monday morning.

“The substance, which if confirmed to be cocaine could have a street value of approximately €30,000, was seized alongside €5,500 cash which was found in a hidden safe during the raid,” an SBA statement said.

Some 120 SBA officers raided the establishment on Monday, arresting two suspects – one being the manager of the casino — on the spot and a third later in the day after his car was found on the premises with a cannabis grinder inside, alongside traces of what is believed to have been the drug.

The manager has been remanded in custody until Friday while the other two suspects were released on bail and will appear again in court at a later date.

SBA Police Superintendant, George Kiteos, has said the efforts of the SBA police to enforce the law will not end there: “Within the SBAs we apply the same legislation and laws to illegal gambling as the Republic of Cyprus and we are determined to apply that law towards those people who attempt to break it.

“We will continue to target specific premises that are suspected to be used for this illegal activity and by working in close liaison with the Cyprus Police we will continue with this sort of operation and prosecute those responsible.”

Police said that apart from the enormous amount of gambling equipment seized during the operation, which included roulette wheels, gaming tables, computers and fruit machines, a €50,000 Harley Davidson was also found.

By George Psyllides

SOME 280 employees in the co-operative sector have opted to take an early retirement scheme, a figure that is close to the target set initially, it emerged on Tuesday.

Citing unnamed sources, the Cyprus News Agency said some 280 co-op workers had decided to take a voluntary retirement scheme offered by the management as part of the sector’s restructuring.

The deadline for acceptance of the scheme expired on Tuesday.

The plan was to cut the sector’s 3,000 workers by 10 per cent, with the minimum number of departures being 250 and the maximum 300.

It mostly targeted staff over 45-year-old but did not exclude younger workers who wished to leave.

Those leaving will receive up to €104,000.

Nicolas Hadjiyiannis, chairman of the Central Co-operative Bank said the “successful completion of the voluntary retirement plan paved the way for the implementation of the programme to achieve savings of up to €300 million between 2014 and 2018.”

The expenditure rationalisation programme provides for operation on 30 per cent less spending.

The co-operative movement is currently undergoing what is perhaps the biggest overhaul in its history, as it comes under the ownership of the state.

As part of the island’s €10 billion international bailout, co-ops will receive €1.5 billion in taxpayers’ money to recapitalise.

The sector has been reduced in size through mergers, which were concluded last month.

As part of the restructure, the island’s 93 co-operatives merged into 18

By Shen Dingli

China is now facing challenges to its maritime claims. The Philippines has just filed a lawsuit to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea against China over a dispute concerning its fishing rights in the South China Sea.

Manila considers itself to be solely entitled to all economic rights, including fishing rights, in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), per the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Since China drew the so-called “nine-dotted line” in 1947, claiming part of the South China Sea as its own – including an area that is part of the Philippines’ EEZ – Manila has demanded that Beijing yield its economic claim in the overlapping area claimed by both countries.

But the Philippines is telling the world an incomplete story. Sure, it has the right to sue another country in the International Tribunal for its own reasons. However, Manila should be mindful that a country has the right not to ratify a certain international treaty, or to make a reservation when joining a particular treaty. For instance, the United States has joined but not ratified the UNCLOS. China has joined and ratified the UNCLOS, but with certain reservations.

While the economic rights in the aforementioned overlapping area are significant, there is a more fundamental issue here: the sovereignty of the islands and islets in that area. China rightfully owned these rocks centuries before the UNCLOS. This cannot be undone just because the UN convention addresses the fishing rights in the waters surrounding these rocks. The UNCLOS is a treaty that addresses the division and sharing of economic rights at sea, but not the issue of sovereignty at sea.

A review of the basic history is telling. In terms of sovereignty over those sea-based territories, successive Chinese governments have claimed various islands, islets, shoals, etc. in the South China Sea. During the Han dynasty, the Chinese government brought Hainan Island under its jurisdiction. In the Tang dynasty, Chinese control extended to the Nansha Islands (the Spratly Islands). Eight centuries ago, during the Yuan dynasty, Beijing sent some officials to conduct a survey at Huangyan Island (Scarborough Shoal). When the Chinese government claimed all rock features in the South China Sea area in 1947, it was met with virtually no counterclaim.

Moreover, until 1997, successive Philippine governments made it clear – through their constitutions – that the nation’s westernmost territory ended at Luzon Island. In fact, Scarborough Shoal, 130 nautical miles west of Luzon, was completely out of the Philippines’ constitution-defined territory until 1997. It was therefore never an area covered by its defense treaties with either Spain or the United States.

It was only in 1997, when Manila introduced its current constitution, that the Philippines began to claim all the islands within its EEZ. Yes, the 1982 UNCLOS gives the Philippines certain economic rights within this exclusive zone, but it doesn’t give it sovereignty over the Chinese islands and islets within that zone.

The Philippines has recently taken military action to occupy at least eight such islands – a serious infringement upon China’s sovereignty. In addition, in 1999, the Philippine Navy intentionally grounded its tank-landing ship at Ren’ai Jiao (Second Thomas Shoal), further encroaching on Chinese territory. Given such aggression, it should be China suing the Philippines and not the other way around. One is left wondering how a country that doesn’t respect the sovereignty of its neighbors can demand that other nations respect its own economic rights.

There are two categories of dispute at stake – sovereignty and economic rights – and China has strong claims on both. Until 1997, the Philippines accepted that it was not entitled to sovereignty over the Spratly Islands, but China has not accepted Manila’s EEZ without reservation. Manila cannot invade Chinese territory (and territorial waters) in the South China Sea while demanding that China yield its traditional economic rights to an international convention without reservation.

China has long proposed that both sides put aside their differences and co-develop in a fair manner. It has exercised significant self-restraint in dealing with the Philippines’ aggression and encroachment. Given this serious dispute, it is essential that both sides take meticulous care to communicate and ease the tension. But Manila has recently shown no interest in shelving differences. It has even employed gunships to arrest Chinese fishermen in the traditional Chinese fishing area. Facing such challenges, China has to respond resolutely to defend its legitimate rights.

Shen Dingli is a former adviser to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on strategic planning. He is currently the Vice Dean of the Institute of International Affairs, Fudan University.

This article first appeared in www.themarknews.com

An article laying out the Philippino perspective will be posted on Friday 

By Ilaria Polleschi and Silvia Aloisi

An Italian court on Tuesday ordered former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to serve a tax fraud sentence by doing community service and set travel restrictions that will limit his ability to campaign for next month’s European Parliament elections.

The Milan court ruled Berlusconi must spend at least four hours a week in a centre for the elderly for one year.

He will not be allowed to travel outside Lombardy, the region around Milan where he has his principal residence, except for restricted trips to Rome.

Following the definitive tax fraud conviction last year, Berlusconi was stripped of his seat in the Italian Senate and barred from holding public office for two years.

But the 77-year-old remains the most influential politician on Italy’s centre-right as leader of the Forza Italia party.

A statement from the court did not say whether Berlusconi would be allowed to campaign for the election while in Lombardy and Rome and what role he could play in public life, if any, over the coming year.

It said the trips to Rome could take place weekly, from Tuesday to Thursday, with Berlusconi ordered to be back in Lombardy by 11 pm (2100 GMT) each Thursday.

His lawyers said in a statement that the ruling “appears balanced and satisfactory even with regards to the needs of political activity”.

They, like Milan prosecutors, had argued in favour of his doing community service rather than being sent to prison or put under house arrest.

A legal source said the media tycoon would do his community service at the Sacred Family Foundation in Cesano Boscone, a small town near Milan. Its website says the centre cares for the elderly and people with disabilities.

The four-time prime minister has dominated Italian politics since the mid-1990s but was expelled from the Senate last November after being convicted of masterminding a complex system of tax fraud at his Mediaset television network.

His four-year jail sentence was commuted to one year under a law aimed at reducing prison overcrowding.

Berlusconi continues to protest his innocence and says he has been persecuted by leftist magistrates.

The centre-right has suffered an internal split and lost support since Berlusconi almost won last year’s national election, but Forza Italia is still Italy’s second or third largest party with about 20 percent of the vote, according to varying opinion polls.

By Sanjeev Miglani

Indian election officials have seized a record $36 million dollars of cash concealed in cars, private planes and even ambulances that they say was destined to buy off voters and pay for expenses over and above the spending limit.

Opinion polls show the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies coming to power thanks to the popularity of Hindu nationalist leader Narendra Modi and widespread disgust with the Congress party, whose last years in power have been dogged by corruption scandals and a sharp economic slowdown.

Despite the dramatic political change it could bring, the 2014 election would appear to be the same grubby game of cash-for-votes that has marred previous ballots in the world’s largest democracy, only this time on a far bigger scale.

Cash seized in the three weeks since the staggered election was announced has already surpassed the 1.9 billion rupees for the whole of the 2009 ballot period, the commission said.

Voting in this year’s election began on April 7 and winds up on May 12.

The Election Commission has also recovered 100 kg of heroin, most of it in the northern state of Punjab that has long been a transit point for drugs from Afghanistan, but is now itself India’s heaviest consuming opium state.

More than 10 million litres of liquor have been seized, too, over the past 20 days as politicians pour resources into an election that will cost an estimated $5 billion by the time it ends, second only to the last US presidential election.

“The seizures that we have made of cash, liquor and drugs are far bigger than we had anticipated. The scale of the problem is immense,” P.K. Dash, who leads the expenditure monitoring effort at the independent Election Commision, told Reuters.

He attributed the increase to the growing number of business leaders getting involved in politics, as Asia’s third-largest economy gears up for an expected second generation of reforms to restore rapid growth.

“A couple of elections ago it was not such a game of money,” Dash said. “Now you have business people in politics, whereas earlier they were involved in managing their empires.”

SPENDING GOES UNDERGROUND

Political funding remains opaque in India, with political parties refusing to disclose fully their sources of finance.

State funding has been mooted in the past to stop illicit spending, but the idea has never taken off.

Critics say a first-past-the-post system for electing lawmakers means the pressure on candidates to outspend their rivals is intense. And in a country where nearly a third of the population of 1.2 billion is estimated to live on less than $1 a day, relatively little money can go a long way.

With a legal spending limit of 7 million rupees ($116,200) for each parliamentary seat at stake, much of the money being spent by candidates has been driven underground.

They splash out on political rallies, luring voters and party workers with free meals, cash in envelopes, plastic pouches of alcohol and – in the case of the youth of Punjab - small black balls of opium paste that they drink with tea.

Dash said his team had found cash in the dashboards of cars, liquor in milk vans and synthetic drugs in trucks carrying vegetables.

One man caught with 40 million rupees in a small car at a checkpoint in the northern town of Ghaziabad three days before polling there said he was a businessman.

But he could not explain what his business was and he seemed to have no source of income. Police filed a case against him, one of 9,000 lodged across the country since the campaign began.

In two southern states, vans carrying banknotes for bank ATMs were discovered with sacks of unaccounted-for additional money. Cash was also found in an ambulance in Odisha after a policeman noticed a suspiciously high number of the vehicles on the move in a remote corner of the eastern state.

To escape detection, politicians are handing out coupons to voters that they can use to get free alcohol and food.

In Punjab, the commission has seized cartons of pink coupons that voters can exchange for a free chicken, blue coupons for local liquor and green ones for branded spirits.

ROLLING PIN BRIGADE

More worrying is the distribution of drugs that is worsening an already serious problem in Punjab.

Besides heroin smuggled from over the border with Pakistan, record seizures of synthetic drugs have been made in the past month, the state’s additional electoral officer Raminder Singh said.

“It is contraband goods. You can’t say for sure for what purpose, (but) the fact that it has been caught during the election period makes it suspect,” said Singh.

Anita Sharma, an architect-turned-civil rights activist who is leading a campaign against drug abuse in elections in Punjab, said political workers hand out capsules of home-made drugs to youths who campaign for a candidate.

“They are fanning an already serious drug problem here,” Sharma said, citing a 2009 affidavit that the state government submitted to the high court saying 67 per cent of rural households in Punjab were home to at least one drug addict.

She and a band of women travel each day to the worst-affected areas to urge womenfolk to report instances of drug distribution. They all carry bread rolling pins in their hands as a symbol of their determination to flatten offenders.

By Angelos Anastasiou

REPORTS of structural risks to the safety of spectators at Limassol’s Tsirion stadium have prompted a decision by the Cyprus Football Federation (KOP) to ban fans from games until it has received assurances that stadium safety has been fully restored.

In a letter to the three Limassol football clubs that use Tsirion as their home pitch – AEL, Apollon and Aris – KOP explained that its decision was guided by public reports on the issue, as well as a study, conducted by civil engineers from the Technical Chamber ETEK on behalf of the Limassol municipality, listing the issues and proposing solutions.

“The decision may be revoked only when we have received [stadium engineer] Themis Demetriou’s explicit assurance, in writing, that any problems have been fixed and Tsirion is completely safe for all spectators,” the letter said.

KOP offered the three clubs two options until the issue has been resolved – either play their remaining home games at Tsirion without fans, or hold the games in another pitch compliant with first division regulations. The clubs were given until Thursday noon to inform KOP of their intentions.

The decision comes at a critical point in the Cyprus league as title favourites AEL and contenders Apollon enter the final stretch, with seven games remaining. The next game at Tsirion is scheduled for next Wednesday afternoon – April 23.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday the stadium’s engineer, Demetriou, tried to assuage safety concerns. He said that restoration work had started and would be completed by next week, at which point he will consent to Tsirion being fully safe for sporting events.

But he was cautious in introducing the concept of ‘high-risk’ when describing games.

“The next game – Apollon hosting Anorthosis on April 23 – is not high-risk, so there is no problem,” he said. “By the time of the next high-risk game – AEL hosting Apollon on May 7 – the restoration work will have been completed and there will be no issues.”

Demetriou delved into the details of the safety issues the stadium presents – which other stakeholders had carefully refrained from doing thus far.

“The only safety concern relates to some cracks on the eastern stands, the risk being that small chunks may be removed from the wall and thrown into the pitch,” he said. “That is the only problem.”

According to Demetriou, while work to restore the stadium will cost roughly €2 million and is necessary in order to prolong its useful life, this week’s work constitute temporary fixes to minor problems so that events can be held safely.

By George Psyllides

The Bank of Cyprus (BoC) has cut the interest rates to the loans of 4,200 people belonging to vulnerable groups by up to 1.0 per cent, its chairman said on Tuesday.

Christis Hassapis said the lender cut the rate by up to 1.0 per cent on around 3,000 housing loans and 1,200 student loans.

BoC has also restructured the loans of over 1,500 unemployed people, who were also considered to be part of the vulnerable groups of the population.

This was in line with a scheme providing for a monthly instalment of €10 per month for the first year.

The BoC chairman said the scheme could be extended for an additional year if the borrower continued to be unemployed.

Those who found a job were allowed to only pay interest on their loan for the first year of employment.

The Bank of Cyprus is struggling to find its footing following a Eurogroup decision last year to seize large deposits and use them for its recapitalisation.

The decision also included closure of Laiki Bank, the island’s second biggest.

By Elias Hazou

Danny Brewster, founder and CEO of bitcoin marketers Neo & Bee, has broken his silence to respond to reports circulating about him of late.

Posting on reddit on Tuesday, Brewster (going by the handle cryptocyprus) said allegations that he has committed fraud are his “greatest concern” at the moment.

He went on to say that he sold bitcoins to a number of people prior to Neo & Bee opening to the public, with four of these people asking that he hold their bitcoins until they provide him a wallet address to send them to.

The company halted operations in late March before its software to carry out transactions had gone live.

“Sorry to disappoint those that believe the tales that I simply took them…. The keys are still stored on paper. The total sales to these four people amounts to 75.29270138 BTC which were purchased for a combined total of €35,213.57 so I have no idea where the values reported in the media have been derived from,” Brewster said.

Earlier, the Cyprus Mail had reported that Brewster was wanted by Cyprus police in connection to allegations that he fraudulently obtained cash from three people in exchange for bitcoins, which they never received. Two of the complaints filed against Brewster concerned the amounts of €20,000 and €15,000, police told the Mail.

Brewster denies any wrongdoing: “I have not received one single request from the individuals who bought the bitcoins from me to send the coins to an address they provided. With one exception a request was made but that was received from the individual that introduced one of the buyers to me, they requested for me to transfer the coins to his Bitstamp account.

“I didn’t send the coins to his address as he was not the person that I had the agreement with. One of these people went directly to the police following rumors that I had fled the country.”

The bitcoin entrepreneur goes on to claim he has been trying to contact police here for days via both phone and email, to no avail.

“If they do not contact me to arrange a solution, then I assume my greatest fears are true that they are doing nothing more than trying to set me up on charges to discredit both myself and Bitcoin as a whole, whilst creating more fear about challenging the status quo.”

Brewster suggests that the four customers provide their wallet addresses to the police, who can then forward this information to him. He has instructed a lawyer in Cyprus to facilitate this process.

He then provides three reasons why he did not return to Cyprus immediately after the issuance of an arrest warrant: “I have a family funeral to attend; The whole situation can be resolved without me doing so; The manner in which the investigations are being carried out are concerning, the police haven’t made an attempt to contact me despite numerous personal requests for them to do so.”

But police told the Mail later on Tuesday that Brewster hasn’t contacted them at any time.

In his reddit post, Brewster further denies that he has fled the country, adding that he plans to return. “I still have a house full of my own belongings, assets, family, friends and most importantly my daughter in Cyprus.”

In a post on a bitcoin forum on April 2, the young CEO said he had initially left Cyprus to seek investors for his business, but that subsequently decided to stay away after threats were made against his daughter.

The Bentley-owning Briton allegedly racked up debts of about €1m, according to the Financial Mirror. These stem from “a major marketing campaign, employing nearly 20 staff and developers, renting office space and buying furniture,” the paper said.

Responding, Brewster said there are creditors to his company but added: “I have not ran with any coins, we had made payments in excess of €1.4m with many of the coins being converted to euros before the run up in price, the largest amount converted at once was the day Silkroad was busted, I had to take the decision on that given day to convert them or risk them becoming pretty worthless and the business not getting off the ground.”

By Felix Onuah and Lanre Ola

Suspected Islamist insurgents abducted more than 100 female students in a night raid on a government secondary school in Nigeria’s northeast Borno state, a teacher said on Tuesday.

The gunmen, believed to be members of the Boko Haram Islamist group which has attacked schools in the northeast before as part of their anti-government rebellion, carried off the students from the school in Chibok late on Monday.

“Over 100 female students in our government secondary school at Chibok have been abducted,” said Audu Musa, who teaches in another public school in the area, around 140 km south of the Borno state capital Maiduguri.

The raid took place on the same day as a bomb attack on the edge of the capital Abuja.

The blast killed at least 75 people, the deadliest ever attack on Abuja, and raised questions about the government’s ability to protect the capital from an insurrection that risks spreading from the Islamist group’s heartland in the northeast.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has pointed the finger of suspicion for the bombing at Boko Haram, although the group, which has ties with al Qaeda-linked militants in the Sahara, has made no statement claiming responsibility.

With elections due in February, Jonathan is under intense pressure to contain the five-year insurgency, which is posing a growing security risk to Africa’s top oil producer and its newly acquired status as the largest economy on the continent.

His government is due to host a World Economic Forum on Africa in Abuja next month to be attended by African heads of state and business leaders and will deploy more than 6,000 police and soldiers to protect participants.

Attacks by Boko Haram, which says it wants to carve out an Islamic state, have targeted police, military and government posts as well as schools and churches, killing more than 2,000 people in the last six months alone, and leaving the Nigerian military struggling to respond.

The teacher Musa said he saw eight bodies in the area of the Chibok attack on Tuesday morning, but did not identity the victims.

“Things are very bad here and everybody is sad,” he said.

The Nigerian military did not immediately comment.

Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said security agencies were investigating Monday’s bombing.

“Our security planning for the World Economic Forum on Africa is already well under way and will be the largest security operation ever mounted in this country for an international summit,” she said in a statement to participants that was seen by Reuters.

Security personnel will secure an area of 250 square kms  around the May 7-9 event.

Nigeria’s 170 million people are split between Muslims living largely in the north and Christians mostly in the south, and Boko Haram has shown before it can strike further south.

POPULAR ANGER

Angry Abuja residents questioned why the government should give priority to ensuring no harm came to high-profile visitors while it was failing to guarantee daily security for Nigerians.

“They should protect us first and people will be attracted to come to Nigeria,” Ajayi Ademola, a computer operator in a business centre, told Reuters.

Local businesswoman Dorothy Ajunobi, referring to accusations that some politicians are manipulating the violence to try to serve their own narrow interests, said: “If government can protect adequately participants to a forum, they should be able to protect Nigerian citizens or otherwise it will now be clear this insecurity in Nigeria is political.”

Visiting the scene of the bombing at Nyanya on Monday, Jonathan called the threat from Boko Haram “temporary”.

But, despite a state of emergency declared last year in the northeast, and an offensive involving thousands of troops backed by aircraft, the army has failed to quell the revolt.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, a northern politician who defected to Nigeria’s main opposition in February from Jonathan’s ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), urged the government to accept foreign help in fighting militants.

Boko Haram militants are increasingly targeting civilians they accuse of collaborating with the army.

There had been no violence on such a scale near the capital since suicide car bombers targeted the offices of the newspaper This Day in Abuja and the northern city of Kaduna in April 2012.

A Christmas Day bombing of a church in Madalla, on the outskirts of Abuja, killed 37 people in 2011. Boko Haram also claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on the United Nations’ Nigeria headquarters that killed 24 people on Aug. 26, 2011.

Boko Haram, which in the Hausa language means broadly “Western education is sinful”, is loosely modelled on the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.

MARIOS Melanitis, 34, was sentenced on Tuesday to 15 years in prison for manslaughter after stabbing his father to death earlier this year.

Melanitis murdered, Christodoulos Melanitis, 59, last January by stabbing him 28 times following a heated argument between the two.

The incident had taken place in a farm just outside Meniko village in the Nicosia district, where the elder Melanitis lived “in squalid conditions.”

Following the murder, the perpetrator had notified the authorities himself but resisted arrest once police arrived.

During the trial, Melanitis said he blamed his father for the “very tough childhood” he had gone through.